Kaleidoscopic Artwork Made Out of Old Phone Books

Cara Barer’s work feels like a Rorschach test of sorts. The Houston-based fine art photographer takes discarded printed materials like maps, encyclopedias, phone books, and old computer manuals, and transforms them into colorful abstract sculptures, which she then shoots against a stark black backdrop. Most of the resulting images take on predictable shapes, like butterflies, pinwheels, or flowers, but others have a decidedly less familiar, almost alien quality to them, like something you’d spot floating in some dark corner of space or lurking at the bottom of a petri dish. Click through and let us know what you see in the comments.